Summer of 76

Dangermouse

Dangermouse

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Who remembers the stand pipes, melting tarmac, and generally it feeling far too hot for too long, how do you think this summer is compared to 76...………...oh and those damned ladybird swarms.
 
I was 13, I don't recall there being any standpipes where I lived. Our road was concrete with tar strips inbetween each section. We started picking out the soft tar. ;) Other than a small pond for kids model boats, drying up, the summer of 76 was just great. A shame we have had to wait so long for another. Long may it continue.
 
I was 12, don't remember having standpipes where I lived either (north west England). I do remember going on a family holiday to the Isle of Bute where it rained all week:(
 
We lived on a long terrace in Featherstone, one end of the St had a stand pipe, the middle and other end had a small bowser that was filled daily
 
My old Cortina wasn't thrilled that summer......first sign of a traffic jam and it was windows open and heater on full blast trying to keep the temperature out of the red.
 
At least we have air con in our cars now - sure as hell didn't in '76!
 
I was living in Hong Kong in 1976, so I can't compare it. Heat doesn't bother me very much, cold weather does...
 
I was hitching around Wales that summer, staying in youth hostels. There were rules such as not being allowed to wash hair except whilst having a brief shower, and I remember rivers and lakes being much lower than they clearly should have been. Back home we had a bowser for the road and water was turned off every other day or something like that.
It all ended with torrential rain overnight. I was in a tent alongside Lake Bala, where lots of other people were also camping, and remember waking very early to find camping cook pots floating around me!
 
We had an after work summer football league, our matches were played on the astroturf pitch next to the Matchbox toys factory at Hackney Wick.
Kicked off at half four and it was up in the high 70's, spent a good few bob rehydrating in the local Youngs pub (The Tiger) afterwards
 
In the summer of '76 I was on a very large, steam powered, tanker in the Persian Gulf. This weather is quite cool in comparison :D
 
I was 3 years old. I remember a tank in the street for water, and also my great gran used to live in lytham st Anne’s and I encountered the swarm of ladybirds there. Those are my only two memories.
 
I was 12 and loved it, not so much now though.
 
I was living in Cardiff and the water was only on for a couple of hours each morning. The reservoirs in the Elan Valley were pretty much full, but their water was going to Birmingham where they didn't have any cut-offs! :mad:
 
I played golf in 1976, and I kept losing my balls down the cracks - in the fairway:)
No joke, I couldn't afford it, and I didn't post a good score for months.
 
I was working as a pathology technician in the NHS and the Aircon units in all bar one lab failed..........the room temperature went very high.

Two impacts ~ the female technicians were stripped to the underwear beneath their white coats :) and the most senior technician & the doctor in ultimate charge told the powers that be if not fixed they would have to shut the labs because unsafe to work! I think it was a week before the work started........oh, the one lab where Aircon ok was where I was scheduled during a few weeks.....the blood cross matching lab, oh the bliss :D

The number of other techs, doctors & other personnel that called with any excuse to come in for a few minutes was unsustainable, it was not that big a room!
 
Dave70D said:
I was 15 and loved it, but now don`t like all this heat either.
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I was 18 and loved it, didn't even mind the standpipes. I'm 60 now and hate it.
 
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I was seven, do remember it seemed one hot day after another. This year I'm really enjoying us having a summer for a change!
 
As a couple of posts above suggest there might be an age factor in how we respond to the heat.

In '76 I was 25 and while I didn't enjoy the heat (I have never been a lover of hot days) I don't recall being too affected by the heat then.

Now it is horrible. My useful day is from about 5am to around 9:30 - 10am. After that I just want to find the coolest place in the house and stay there and do nothing.

Dave
 
I was 9, it was great. I remember standpipes and small water board tankers with taps on them. The reservoirs were extremely low and revealed old buildings, bridges etc, even trees. I also remember the tarmac melting. I didn't mind the heat then, never really noticed it but these days, 21-22 degrees is enough for me.:cool:

This summer is on a par but not quite so hot or dry, it's raining here at the moment, West Scotland.
 
I remember 76, virtually every day hot and sunny and not a shower of rain. In the September that year, after we were back to normal rainy weather, I remember watching some footings being dug for some houses on a local building site and the top 10 inches or so of the soil was as damp as normal but the layer beneath that was still as dry as sticks with dust coming off it. I remember the digger driver and banksman looking at it and commenting on how dry it still was down there despite the rain we'd had.
 
I checked the weather in Sevilla at 11pm last night. It was still 37c.
 
I was 24 and did it in two contrasting halfs.

The first one I was on study leave for my ACA finals - out in the garden shade every day - nice.

The second was hell - commuting to and working in central London in a puddle of sweat..
 
I was 6. I don't remember it making much difference on the farm (there were two natural wells and a large stream on the property).
I do remember a great three week family holiday to Devon & Cornwall, and tons of ladybirds.

Hating the current weather. I can't stress how much.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
I checked the weather in Sevilla at 11pm last night. It was still 37c.
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Friend who lives in Campillos says it's 44C there at the moment, she's just flown back from the relatively cool it's been 28-30C in Bristol.

I've been bricklaying today, 27C in the shade, but I wasn't. I complain about the cold in winter, won't find me complaining about us actuallt having a nice summer as well.
 
onomatopoeia said:
Friend who lives in Campillos says it's 44C there at the moment, she's just flown back from the relatively cool it's been 28-30C in Bristol.

I've been bricklaying today, 27C in the shade, but I wasn't. I complain about the cold in winter, won't find me complaining about us actuallt having a nice summer as well.
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Hottest I experienced in Andalucía was 42c in Córdoba (which I believe has the hottest average annual temperature in Europe). Being inland it was a very dry heat. Leaving the hotel felt like opening an oven door. I didn’t struggle but the other half did.
 
I remember 76 well.

Fundamental difference now is that this time round it is serious, and most likely irreversible. Mankind needs proper, strong leadership if it is going to survive.
 
I was 16 the year the earth turned brown :) it was my last school holiday. I remember it being hotter and for much longer than this year, I also remember not drinking or needing to drink so much fluids though that might just have been youth.
I don't know the reason why 76 was so hot but this year it's the gulf stream being wavy instead of a direct flow which is why Iceland is having constant rain and we're balmy.
 
Pound Coin said:
I remember 76 well.

Fundamental difference now is that this time round it is serious, and most likely irreversible. Mankind needs proper, strong leadership if it is going to survive.
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Mankind also needs to realise that it can't eat and drink money and carry on breeding like rabbits if it wants to avoid a very unpleasant and devastating shock.
 
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The best thing for the planet would be the extinction of one species. I'm just hoping that the extinction doesn't start for 50 years or more!
 
It was that particular Summer which piqued my interest in meteorology, I was 9 then. I can clearly remember the dramatic breakdown right at the tail end of August with an almighty all nighter thunderstorm and how it lead to the wettest September for 200 years. Nature certainly knew how to balance itself out and in fact we had to wait until 1983 for the next decent Summer.

Water reserves seems to be holding up remarkably well at the moment, but last Summer and the winter we've just had were wetter than average which kept reservoirs nicely topped up whereas the Summer of '76 was preceded by a dry Summer and winter so we were already running into trouble with water supplies by the Spring of '76. Also, today, the advent of water meters is probably causing people to be more wary of water usage even though there are another 15,000,000 of us in the UK in 42 years. But, what if this Summer of '18 is the new Summer of '75 and the next Summer turn out to be even hotter and drier? Mmmmmm.
 
I was 6mths old so someone else was responsible for keeping me cool :D

I remember melting tar, mental thunderstorms as we swam in a river and lots of wasp stings and horse-fly bites through summers in the mid 80's though. Feels in my mind that it was hotter then, but records say otherwise.
 
'95 is still recorded as the driest summer, apparently.
 
Some people talk like we’ve never had a proper summer between 76 and now.

84 and 95 stand out, but there have been others.

My Mrs has a birthday in July, and it’s almost guaranteed to rain, last year we went to Cardiff for a few days and the day before was lovely, but on her birthday we had torrential rain and gales.

This year we went to Corfu, and despite it being a glorious summer here, it still rained on her birthday. Fortunately in Corfu, it was glorious.
 
Could you tell us roughly which date and also where you are going over the next few years, so we can avoid the rain? :)
 
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